After watching the Heat-Grizzlies pre-season game Saturday night I can safely say that Penny Hardaway should retire. He has no lift, not a great shot and is simply too slow to play the game. It was painful seeing his skills decrease to the extent they have. Penny was a super player in his youth and could have been a great player in his prime if injuries hadn’t gotten in the way. Right now Penny is so far past his prime that he shouldn’t be on the court. I can only hope someone at Miami realizes and let’s him go before he embarrass himself over a full season.

Other than seeing Penny decline and Earl Barron nearly foul out in the first half the game wasn’t unenjoyable. Rudy Gay was nearly perfect…literally. He was 6-6 from the line, 5-5 from the arc and 5-6 from the line. 22 pts, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and a blocked shot. Something or someone has lit a spark under Rudy and he is playing sensational. When Gasol returns we will have 3 legitimate shooters on this team (Mike Miller being the 3rd). They just need time to get comfortable with each other and comfortable within the system. The problem is still that while Memphis has 3 legitimate scorers I don’t know if we have a go to player in crunch time yet.

Is Stromile Swift the comeback player of the year so far in the NBA? Nobody, and I include myself in that catagory, thought Stro was going to do anything more than cash his paycheck for two more seasons before disappearing into the sunset. Instead he is actually working hard and looking good while keeping assumed starter Darko Milicic stuck on the bench. Darko had moments of good looks and did grab a pre-season high with 9 rebounds but against players more likely plying their trade in the NBDL this winter than on the end of the bench in Miami it wasn’t as impressive as one would hope. Still it was good to see him grab 9 boards.

The point guard battle is still wide open as each player logged around 16 minutes against Miami. Damon was the most impressive since his minutes came against former Grizzlies player Jason Williams. His 7 pts and 5 assists were within the flow of the offense and he seems to be grasping what Iavaroni wants faster than Lowry or Conley. Lowry had been leading the competition with his defense but this game revealed some of the limitations of his offensive repetoire. While he did dish out 5 assists and scored 4 points he was not as fluid on the court. It was almost as if you could see he was still thinking about what to do instead of reacting. Conley was the least impressive overall only scoring 2 pts and dishing out 3 asists. A slight stepback from the double double game he had in Indiana but that happens to rookies. No one has really grabbed the starting role but it is looking more and more to be Damon’s job to lose on opening night but the kids could replace him soon into the season.

The team is still not acting on offense but thinking. The plays aren’t intuitive yet. With 9 days to go until Opening Night against the defending world champion San Antonio Spurs, time is running out on the team being ready for that game. Hopefully things will start to click more for the team, especially Mike Miller, and the PG situation will clear up some more. Pre-season is a time to learn. As the pre-season nears completion we need to start seeing the players who will be in the rotation on opening night more and those who will be out less. The back to back with Houston this week should reveal a lot about who these players will be.